


Artifact

by MadHatter13



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-11 06:18:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11708583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadHatter13/pseuds/MadHatter13
Summary: A lost object finally reveals to Aang the complicated relationship between his past life and the present.





	Artifact

There is more to Aang eventually coming to trust Zuko than the defeat of the mind-bending assassin or a few cups of tea or, even, learning to firebend from him. You need a bit more than a few days of non-aggression and being almost roasted by dragons together to no longer flinch from the flames that for the past year were aimed at you. It goes a little something like this:

It is a strangely normal day; only three since they met the last dragons in the world. The Fire Prince‘s integration into their little group has gone easier than expected. Haru is making breakfast – it turns out he‘s an excellent cook. He shyly informs Aang that when the war is over, that is what he‘d like to do for a living. Toph is relaxing by the fountain, Katara doing one of the final healing sessions on her sore feet. Sokka is only just getting up, yawning and scratching his back with his boomerang.

It‘s all interrupted by a CRASH! and some muffled yelling from their newest member. Momo comes swooping by at head-height carrying something and Zuko comes running down one of the staircases looking only about as agitated as normal. ‘Give it back!’

‘What’s going on?’ The tone of Katara’s voice isn’t quite threatening, but she’s stood up from where she’s administering to Toph and that’s a stance that’s sent quite a few enemies running, Aang knows.

Zuko slows down – actually he seems to make a point of relaxing his posture and tone of voice, whether to back down from Katara or just to appear generally non-threatening.  It reminds Aang of a time when he had seen a tigerdillo cub adopted by peasant-chickens, and the way it had tried to imitate its new family.

‘Your flying lemur took my stuff,’ he says, annoyed, although mere annoyance is a teaparty compared to Zuko when he’s actually angry.

Toph throws up her hands. ‘Oh come on, didn’t you go on a big spiritual quest to get it back or something? And you let the _lemur_ take it away?’

‘I _mean_ my pack.’

‘Momo! Is that true?’ Aang chides. The lemur chirps, looking not even a little bit ashamed. Sokka snickers.

Zuko sighs. ‘If you could just get him to hand it over? I’ve chased him through half the temple. I don’t even know how such a tiny animal could carry something that heavy!’

Sokka shrugs, and saunters over to the firepit to poke at the embers. ‘Well, it comes with the age old mystery. Just what _is_ the airspeed velocity of a flying lemur?’

Teo, who has been helping Haru with the soup, but seems to be half-way through inventing a more efficient kind of ladle, looks up thoughtfully. ‘Depends. A Western or a Southern lemur?’

‘Is it an unladen lemur?’ Adds the Duke and _woah_ , Aang had not actually noticed him sitting up in the rafters before he said that.

Zuko looks so harassed that Aang takes it upon himself to pick Momo out of the air and disentangle him from the pack. There doesn’t seem to be a lot in it, although a few things have fallen out. One of them is a portrait of General Iroh, which Zuko snatches up quickly. Aang gets the feeling it is not because he doesn’t want anyone to see it, but because he doesn’t want it to get dirty. He quickly puts the rest of his things into the pack, glares at Momo, thanks Aang for the assistance, and goes back to his room. He has already told Aang that they will not train until the afternoon, since he wants to meditate, and Aang also has to train with Toph.

He does grab a proffered bowl from Teo, nodding his thanks awkwardly.

‘What a grump,’ says Sokka. ‘Well, time for breakfast! Come on, Katara, you’ll get pruney if you stand there for too long.

Out of the corner of his eye, Aang sees Katara stick out her tongue at Sokka, but he has bent down to pick up something lying in the dirt that had rolled away. It takes him a moment to realize just what it is, but by then it has already tilted the world on its side.

‘Aang, are you coming?’ Toph asks as the rest of them gather for breakfast.

He doesn’t answer, because all he can think for the moment is, _oh._

In his hand is Roku’s hairpiece.

 

* * *

 

He spends most of the morning thinking about it, even as he performs form after form under Toph’s unseeing gaze.  For one thing, he had thought it must have perished under volcanic ash along with Roku himself. But he knows it’s not some other object with nothing to do with his past life, much like he knew the toys belonging to former Avatars that had been laid before him as an infant by the monks.

‘Time out,’ Toph says to him after a while. He obediently goes back into his resting stance. She taps her foot on the ground a few times, in thought. ‘You’re being all distant, Twinkletoes.’

‘Sorry, I’ll pay better attention this time.’

She shook her head. ‘You did your forms almost perfectly – don’t get cocky about it!’ She says when he cheers. ‘But it’s like a part of you is somewhere else. Like when you get all spiritual on us and stuff, it’s a bit weird.’

He shrugs. ‘Sorry?’

‘It’s Sparky, right? I know we trust him now and all, but it’s still weird having him in the next room. And also it turns out he’s just a really weird guy when he’s not trying to kill you.’ She snorts. ‘Well, actually he’s at the top of the cliff, not the next room. Doing stretches, I think. He’s got enough tension in him to power one of Teo’s gadgets, it’s a real annoying for my feet.’

That gives him a very simple idea. ‘Is it okay if we’re finished today? I have something I want to ask Zuko.’

Toph shrugs. ‘I’d rather have you here when you’re on full focus. But I’ll give you hell if you aren’t in top shape tomorrow!’ She looks chagrined for a moment. ‘Besides, my feet aren’t totally right yet, so everything looks a bit fuzzy. I could use some mediation on my own, I guess.’

‘Thank you, sifu!’ Aang bows, then grabs his glider and jumps off the nearest balcony, letting the currents push him up. Toph always says that he overcomplicates things when he’s thinking, and she’s right. He’s approaching this as if Zuko were an enemy with something to hide, instead of a part of the group. Why spend hours thinking about why he’s in the possession of an artifact of his previous reincarnation when he can just go and ask him?

 

* * *

 

Zuko himself has turned to meditation when he reaches the top of the cliff. He is not right at the edge of the cliff – he seems to have a healthy respect for heights in calm situations. Which is funny given how many time Aang has seen him hurtling recklessly off high places when he can’t even airbend. His back is to the sun, which Aang doesn’t really understand. Wouldn’t feeling it be easier if you can see it?

He looks up when Aang lands on the cliff next to him. ‘I thought you were still training with Toph?’

‘We’re finished for today, but I wanted to ask you something before lunch.’

Zuko looks vary, but doesn’t abandon his position. ‘Yeah?’

Aang takes a few steps towards him, and then takes from inside his robes the hairpiece. ‘You dropped this. When Momo took your stuff.’

Zuko’s eyes widen. He starts to reach for it, then hesitates. ‘I didn’t notice it had gone missing.’

‘Do you know what this is?’

Zuko’s expression is strange. ‘I do. Do you?’

Aang nods. Zuko breathes out. ‘I wasn’t sure if you would. I didn’t want to bring it up in case you didn’t recognize it,’ he adds, reaching up to scratch the back of his head.

‘Why do you have something belonging to Roku, Zuko?’

‘Well, it’s not just something of Avatar Roku’s, is it? It was a gift to him from Firelord Sozin.’

Aang’s eyes glaze over. ‘Yes. But it was from before he became Firelord.’ He can remember it, and not just from the point of view as an outsider, as Roku had shown him his memories. He can also remember it as the one receiving the gift. It’s not as clear as his current memories, but it belongs to him all the same. He may not be Roku, but he is Roku reincarnated, and a part of him will always be a part of Aang.

He sits down across from Zuko, crossing his legs in a meditative stance. He’s noticed this before, but an airbender meditating does not look the same as a firebender doing so. Zuko takes this as a cue to explain himself. ‘My uncle gave it to me, not long before I left.’

Aang’s brow wrinkles. ‘But I thought he was imprisoned?’

‘He was. I meant to rescue him on my way here, but he had already escaped on his own. ‘ He looks ashamed, but stays on the topic. ‘But before that I went to see him, and he gave this,’ he nods at the hairpiece now sitting between them, ‘To me.’

‘And how did he find it?’

Zuko shrugs. ‘Search me. I thought it had perished along with Roku. It’s not as if Uncle has a habit of explaining himself clearly.’ He sounds both exasperated and fond. ‘But he gave it to me because it belonged to my grandfather.’

‘It’s a royal artifact belonging to the Crown Prince,’ Aang remembered. ‘I suppose if anyone’s going to wear it, it’s you.’

But Zuko shook his head. ‘It did belong to Sozin once, but he gave it to Roku.’ He hesitates, but continues. ‘Sozin was my great-grandfather on my father’s side. But my great-grandfather on my mother’s side was, uh, Roku.’

Aang blinks, before leaning forward with a rush of air in his wake. ‘WHAT?’

Zuko, hair disheveled even further by expressive airbending, nods apprehensively.

Aang stares at him for a bit to confirm he is being serious, but then leans back. ‘That’s… Oh, boy.’

‘I thought the same thing,’ Zuko muttered.

Something occurs to Aang. ‘Hang on – why didn’t you mention this when you first came to join us? It would have helped convince us to trust you!’

He gets a shrewd look in return. ‘Are you sure? Do you want to bet someone would just have said that I had stolen it, or that it wasn’t the real thing, or that even if I was related to Roku that meant nothing compared to what I had done to you already?’

He opens his mouth to object, then deflates. ‘Guess you’re right.’ He scuffs the dirt with his toes. If anything this makes the whole situation more complicated, not less.

But Zuko stands up, brushing dust off his clothes, and crosses his arms. ‘Now it’s time for your lesson.’

Aang jolts to his feet. ‘What? But lunch is in an hour!’

‘That’s an hour you can spend training! Let me see your stance!’

Sighing, he does as his teacher tells him, but the hairpiece stays tucked neatly inside his robes . Zuko had told him to keep it. ‘After all it’s yours by right,’ he says, almost like he’s telling a joke. It, and what it symbolizes, keeps tugging at his thoughts for the remainder of the day.

 

* * *

 

Zuko is exhausted by the time he goes to his room that night. He was already up with the sun this morning, only to have to chase the damn lemur all over the place before training.  And after dinner he’d finally worked up the courage to serve tea to the rest of the group. Even if he had resisted it at the time, he could brew it excellently now after his stay in Ba Sing Se. They had seemed to like it, even Sokka who joked about poison and Katara who had waited to see him drink it until she tried it herself.

A part of him wondered if he would ever get to make tea for Uncle.

Maybe as a defense against that train of thought ( _what if he would never see Uncle again what if Uncle hated him what if he -)_ his mind went back to, of all places, the Fire Temple. That day on the Winter Solstice had been the only time he had ever seen Avatar Roku in person, if that was even the right word. It wasn’t as if he had ever been likely to meet him. He didn’t ever expect to visit the Spirit World and the man had after all been dead for over a hundred years.

_No_ , some inner thought insisted. _He had been murdered a hundred years ago, by Sozin._

The former Firelord’s involvement in the last Avatar’s death wasn’t a matter of public history. Even if killing the Avatar would have gained him great prestige among some people, there were far more, even in the Fire Nation, who would have been outraged and furious. And even the ones who _would_ have admired him for it would have balked at the idea of simply leaving an old man to die instead of defeating him ( _the word tasted bitter now_ ) _honorably_ in Agni-Kai.

_He was killed by his best friend_ , the thought says again.

Former. Thinks Zuko. They were enemies by the time he killed him.

_Is that supposed to be better? That might be even worse._

He wonders if Roku, or really Roku’s spirit, knew what had become of his bloodline. If he knew what a mess they had made of the world, and of themselves. He wonders if his mother knew about her ancestry – or his father, for that matter. No, of course he does. It would be just the kind of thing he’d do – marry the descendant of an Avatar to benefit his own _legacy_.

_‘Evil and good are always at war inside you, Zuko. It is your nature, your legacy.’_

He scoffs. It’s just like Uncle to further complicate his thoughts even when he’s not even _there_.

_‘But, there is a bright side. What happened generations ago can be resolved now, by_ you _.’_

He’s no Avatar. He’s not Roku reincarnated, nor Sozin. Or, at least, he sincerely hopes not. But this knowledge has made him realize that who he is, is not dependant entirely on himself, or even his father, or his mother. _(‘Never forget who you are, Zuko,’ and the blurred sight of a disappearing figure in the dark, is another memory that surfaces)_. No, the ideals and actions he would have to choose between were already decided long before he was even born. All based on something bigger than himself, the kind of power and responsibility even beyond being a Prince. He doesn’t like that thought. He hadn’t been thinking of Sozin when he feverishly stumbled through the world to find a way home, but of his father.

But weren’t his father’s ideals and actions based in those of Azulon, and Azulon’s in Sozin’s? Is _any_ task he has faced one that he himself has put in motion?

With a jolt he realizes that this must be what Aang feels like _all the time._

_‘Because of your legacy, you alone can cleanse the sins of our family, and the Fire Nation.’_

But the choice of what to do with it is _his_. And he has made it.

Doing it on his own was never an option. Even without the destruction of the Earth Kingdom looming. Even on the assumption that Azula would have let him live long enough to inherit the throne, he could not wait to become Fire Lord and end this war the long way around. Not only does he not have the patience, but he could not do it without Aang, without the Avatar at his side. Even when he did not know why, he had subconsciously sabotaged his own attempts to capture him, because a part of him did not want to do it. He has realized by now that the part of him that wasn’t swayed by Uncle’s words had known that his mother would be ashamed of him for doing it. Her influence, and by extension that of Roku, kept him holding back.

He shakes his head. _Don’t think of the Avatar and the Firelord. Remember the two young men before all that, who learned together and fought together – who were friends._

What began this war was the shift of two people from friends to enemies. He knows, now, that only the opposite can resolve it.

_Born in you, along with all the strife, is the power to restore_ balance _to the world._

 

* * *

 

 

_‘Make sense of our past, Aang. And you will bring peace and restore balance in the world.’_

He sometimes wishes his past selves could be more straightforward at times. He wonders if he should talk to his most recent past life about this, whether it would make things any clearer. But he knows from being a monk that being taught something and coming to understand it on your own terms are different things.

Except Katara is also right in that no amount of thinking beats actually talking to people about your problems, even ones spanning more than a hundred years outside your own lifetime. Although ideas like ‘lifetime’ become sticky when faced with things like ‘technically I was _alive_ ; I was just in cryogenic stasis at the time.’

Aang is the Avatar, and the Avatar is both one person, and the entire world all at once. Being reincarnated thousands of times until you are both one person and a collection of many other persons doesn’t make it any easier to explain, and he has to _live_ it.

He knows, intellectually, that Zuko is descended from the man who wiped out his nation, but that has never been all that relevant in how they’ve dealt with each other. In any case the monks were very particular about not blaming the sins of the parent on their children.

Zuko is not Sozin, nor Sozin reincarnated (there’s a distinction between the two, if somewhat blurry). Even so, the part of Aang that remembers dying under thousands of tons of volcanic ash is extremely unnerved to see both the one who abandoned him there and a mirror image of his dying past self in one person.

He finds Zuko on the balcony some time after midnight, looking out over the canyon, stars above veiled by clouds. He doesn’t seem surprised to see him there. ‘I was here once before, with my Uncle. Three years ago, when I first started hunting for you,’ he says, as a means of conversation.

He doesn’t really know what to say to that. ‘Uh, good?’

Zuko groans, throwing his head back. ‘No, I mean. It’s strange to think of how different things are now!’

‘Oh, yeah. Gotcha.’

He’s not wrong. Aang doesn’t even need to look around anymore to be faced with the evidence. The memory of the Western Air Temple a hundred years ago – full of nuns and bison and novices in training – is even now gradually being replaced by the place as it is now, deserted by people.

He tries not to wonder what happened to the bodies. They haven’t found any, unlike at the Southern Temple. Maybe they managed to escape only to die somewhere else, or maybe they were burnt beyond ash. Or, maybe, someone back then had the decency to give them a burial.

One day, he’s going to have to find out – when all of this is over. Someone has to give last rites to his people, and he’s the only one left who knows how.

He has a brief struggle of anger, first at Sozin for slaughtering his entire people, then at Roku for not stopping him, then at himself for running away back then. No, he can’t play the blaming game. He decided not to when he forgave himself for running away, choosing to believe he was meant to restore balance to the world as it is now, rather than before. Toph had mocked him once, saying she could see through his façade of Zen acceptance, and that no-one could possibly be as contented as he is.

It’s not a front. He really has forgiven, if not forgotten, a whole lot of bad stuff for a kid his age. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have to work on it.

This is a start.

‘I’ve been thinking if I should talk to Roku,’ he says.  Zuko’s eyes widen. ‘Not about what you said, I definitely believe you. But he had only told me a part of the story himself, and I wondered why he didn’t tell me the rest.’

In his mind’s eye, he can still see the clear, destructive line from the two boys sitting together in the grass, to the old man walking away from his suffocating enemy. But it is now overlaid by the contrasting journey made by himself, and the boy standing next to him. From ferociously battling enemies, to this moment.

He looks down into the canyon. ‘But then I decided it didn’t matter. Roku does not live in this world anymore, and nor does Sozin. We may have to live with the mistakes they made, but we don’t have to make the same ones.’ He turns to Zuko, smiling. ‘I am glad to get a second chance to do this the right way.’

Zuko looks like he may have lost all his words, but he still manages to smile back. ‘So am I.’

 

* * *

 

After the final battle, Aang spends a whole lot of time feeling both gut-churningly anxious, and relieved. Relieved, because he managed to live through it without becoming a murderer himself, and anxious because for a while he doesn’t know if everyone else made it.

He finds out about Sokka, Toph and Suki soon enough, but it still takes them the better part of a day to get back to the Fire Nation capital on the partly broken-down airship they stole. Sokka grumbles about that until Suki swats him on the shoulder and tells him they’d all be dead if Toph hadn’t metalbent the thing in some key places. At least it means rest, but it’s hard to feel relaxed when they don’t know what happened in Ba Sing Se. And, once they’ve filled him in on where Katara and Zuko went, from tearing his non-existent hair out at the idea of them facing Azula.

A messenger hawk intercepts them on their way to a stop-over in the walled city to see if the White Lotus needs backup:  A missive from General Iroh telling them that everything went according to plan and to head directly for the Fire Nation. It’s pretty obvious the General, however confident in their skills, is worried about his nephew.

The first thing Aang does after the airship takes off, and after stowing Ozai in the hold, is to give everyone the biggest hug he can manage in his fatigued state. There is some fake grumbling from Toph, Sokka may or may not cry a little bit, Suki seems fond but exasperated.

Then he passes out on a bench for three hours.

When he wakes up, they’re hovering over the city and trying to find a place to land, and also to see if they’ll be welcomed or attacked when they do. But there are no immediate bursts of flame in the direction of the errant zeppelin. Eventually they risk a landing, and are met by an old lady who reveals herself to be a White Lotus member. She tells them of Azula’s defeat, and leads them into the palace, where half-way along a corridor they are tackled by an ecstatic Katara, who checks them all over for injuries before hauling her brother into the next room to get a better look at his broken leg.

Zuko is nowhere to be seen.

‘Is he –‘ Suki begins, but can’t finish the sentence.

‘Oh. Oh, spirits, no!’ Katara looks stricken. ‘He’s in the next room. Azula shot him down, but I think he’s going to be alright.’ She looks so worried that her brother pulls her into another hug. ‘I think he’s asleep – I gave him something for the pain.

Aang quietly leaves them talking, and goes to find Zuko, who is in fact not asleep – probably he’s too paranoid to do so. He isn’t in some royal suite. The city is still in process of reacting to this shift of power, so they’re in a disused wing of the palace. Aang can see dust and silkworm-cobwebs in the corners.

Apparently no-one has yet told him that they’ve arrived. His eyes widen, and he tries to sit up in the narrow bed, but lets out a noise of pain and clutches at his bandaged chest. ‘You made it!’

Aang can’t help the huge smile on his face any more than he normally could. ‘So did you.’

‘Ozai?’

‘Alive but defeated.’ Aang sits down at the foot of the bed. ‘You should lie down, lightning scars don’t like being stretched.’

Zuko looks grim. ‘Yeah.’ They don’t broach the subject of his father; that is a conversation to be had later.

‘Guess we match now,’ Aang says. Zuko snorts, which is almost the same thing as a laugh.

He wants to hug his friend, but that seems inadvisable because of his injuries, and instead he reaches for the artifact that brought them here. ‘Here.’ He says, handing it to Zuko. ‘I never gave it back to you, and you’re the one who should have it. Even if you’ll be crowned Fire Lord in a bit and won’t have long to wear it – you can pass it on.’

Zuko looks at the hairpiece, his eyes wide. ‘Are you certain?’

‘Yeah. Besides –‘ Aang grins. ‘Out of the two of us, you’re gonna look better wearing it than me.’

Zuko really laughs this time, and then cringes at the pain that follows. Aang abandons his restrainant and hugs him anyway.

‘So does this mean I get to call your grandson?’

‘Absolutely not!’

_‘Do you really think friendships can last more than one lifetime?’_

_‘I don’t see why not.’_

**Author's Note:**

> So sorry for the Monty Python joke.


End file.
